Oregon, Washington to buy drugs jointly, help uninsured

PORTLAND — Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Wednesday that Oregon and Washington state will form a prescription-drug-buying cooperative to leverage their combined buying power to get medicine for the uninsured.

The Northwest Prescription Drug Consortium is expected to begin joint purchasing within the year. It will bring together the Oregon prescription-drug plan, a purchasing pool for low-income people 55 and older to access below-market price drugs, with a similar plan in Washington.

More than 5 million people are eligible for the programs that will now cooperatively shop for better deals for the two states.

"The rising cost of prescription drugs hurts everybody — families, businesses, and Oregon taxpayers," Kulongoski said. "But by buying smarter and buying together, Oregon can save millions of dollars on prescription drugs."

The announcement comes at the same time as a report from the Heinz Family Philanthropies that found Oregon could save up to $17 million a year by changing how the state buys prescription drugs.

Oregon's drug purchases, used for state-run programs such as Medicaid, would not be part of the two-state cooperative.

But the report, produced at the request of the governor, recommended several steps such as consolidating how the state buys prescription drugs, increasing the attorney general's involvement in the process, seeking drug rebates and imposing a preferred drug list for the state's Medicaid program.

The governor has twice tried to create an enforceable preferred-drug list, but neither attempt was supported by the Legislature.

Kulongoski said he is committed to making changes to prescription-drug costs.

And he will try again for a drug list and follow through on the other changes recommended by the Heinz organization, which is chaired by Teresa Heinz Kerry.